Unlimited Flour

What if the most productive flour plant on Earth has been growing for free in marshes this whole time? In this episode from Curious Cultivars, we trace the astonishing history of cattail flour—from Paleolithic grinding stones and Indigenous food traditions to WWII research that found cattails could outproduce potatoes, rice, and grain crops in edible starch per acre. Then the story takes an even stranger turn: the same plant can also clean polluted water, provide industrial fiber, and even help produce bio-fuel. Why did a plant this useful vanish from the modern food system? Watch to explore the forgotten science, the buried history, and the uncomfortable economics behind one of the world’s most overlooked plants.